Scary Situation with Old Appliance

[kymom99]

I thought I would share what I experienced early this morning.

We awoke at 5:30 am to the sound of one of our smoke detectors going off. My husband yelled for me to get up. I didn’t even hear the thing. When I woke up I thought it was the weather alert and we had to go to the basement. It took a few seconds for my mind to register what was happening.

There was really no smoke that we could see and no fire but a strong sulphuric smell. My husband said get dressed and grab your purse. Then he said maybe grab the cat. The cat sleeps in the basement. I went down and there was no smell down there. The cat didn’t even wake up. I was caliing 911 as I was getting him in his crate. We went out of the house and pulled a car out of the garage. We moved it across the street and left it running in the neighbors driveway to keep the cat warm.

Three fire trucks and 2 police cars responded. It must have been a slow night. It took a while and a lot of questions to pinpoint the problem. The final verdict was that the motor on our very old fridge burned up.

I have been saying for a long time that I was going to buy a new fridge. But I hate spending money on that kind of stuff. And the thing worked so....

We are VERY fortunate that we only need to replace the fridge and we had to pitch out some old food to be able to fit everything in the downstairs fridge. There is a lingering odor but I imagine that will go away eventually. If we weren’t home our whole house would have gone up in flames. I shudder to think about it.

So maybe some of my DIS friends are in a similar situation with old appliances that are past the point of being safe. I know we are a frugal bunch but it’s not worth the risk keeping things around that pose a fire risk.

 

[marthachick]

So glad everyone and everything is ok. Several years ago one of our smoke detectors went off during the night. We eventually figured out the detector was bad after checking the whole house out. It was scary. We replaced all of the detectors immediately.

 

[kymom99]

So glad everyone and everything is ok. Several years ago one of our smoke detectors went off during the night. We eventually figured out the detector was bad after checking the whole house out. It was scary. We replaced all of the detectors immediately.

I plan to replace our detectors too. Replacing the fridge is going to be tricky because of the water line to the ice maker. It’s so old my H can’t shut it off. He says if he forces it he is sure it will leak. So will probably need a plumber before we can take out the old fridge and bring in a new one.

 

[ForMyBoys]

So glad everyone and everything is ok. Several years ago one of our smoke detectors went off during the night. We eventually figured out the detector was bad after checking the whole house out. It was scary. We replaced all of the detectors immediately.

This just happened to us a few weeks ago. I agree it was scary and unsettling. What scared me the most was that even with fire detectors blaring right outside his room for close to 30 min my 12 year old never woke up!!

OP sorry about your fridge

 

[afan]

This just happened to us a few weeks ago. I agree it was scary and unsettling. What scared me the most was that even with fire detectors blaring right outside his room for close to 30 min my 12 year old never woke up!!

OP sorry about your fridge

I slept through a good portion of the fire alarm going off in the dorms during finals week my first semester freshman year. My roommate was staying elsewhere so it was just me in the room and once I finally woke up I opened the door and saw that no one else was leaving so I said ok and went back in my room. We had A LOT of false alarms. Probably 5-10 minutes later I heard everyone coming back in from outside.

In high school I slept through the house across the street and one over burning down and had a fire truck parked outside my bedroom window in the cul de sac we are on but don't use. In my defense to that, we're less than 2 blocks from the fire station so sirens rarely wake me unless it's close to time to get up or I'm in the right phase of sleep. Over 20 years later I'm not sure I'd sleep through that type of stuff though.

OP glad you all got out safely and they figured out the problem and it ended up being an "easy" fix.

 

[cel_disney]

OP - I am glad that you all were safe!

Can you explain more about what would have happened if you were not home - why do you believe the fridge/house would have caught fire?

Also - do you mind sharing what brand of smoke detector you have that was able to alert you to this without visual appearance of smoke or flames?

 

[kymom99]

OP - I am glad that you all were safe!

Can you explain more about what would have happened if you were not home - why do you believe the fridge/house would have caught fire?

Also - do you mind sharing what brand of smoke detector you have that was able to alert you to this without visual appearance of smoke or flames?

Well this happened to my friend and it burned a hole in her floor. My husband says it would not have caught anything on fire but I’m not so sure. If it was generating heat I would think the wall could catch. Maybe I’m wrong. He also didn’t see white smoke but I did and my throat burned a little after.

I will add that the detector stopped after a bit. So I’m not sure why. I’ll check and see what kind they are.

 

[kymom99]

Well this happened to my friend and it burned a hole in her floor. My husband says it would not have caught anything on fire but I’m not so sure. If it was generating heat I would think the wall could catch. Maybe I’m wrong. He also didn’t see white smoke but I did and my throat burned a little after.

Well this happened to my friend and it burned a hole in her floor. My husband says it would not have caught anything on fire but I’m not so sure. If it was generating heat I would think the wall could catch. Maybe I’m wrong. He also didn’t see white smoke but I did and my throat burned a little after.

I will add that the detector stopped after a bit. So I’m not sure why. I’ll check and see what kind they are.

the smoke detector is a Kidde. Battery operated. That’s about all I know.

 

[Sjm9911]

Check your smoke detectores and change the batteries 2x a year. Snoke detectors only last 10 years, so if there older toss them and get new ones. The new ones have a built in 10 year battery. Also, have a CO alarm outside tour sleeping area if you have gas or propane appliances. CO alarms only last aboit 7 to 8 years. You can check the dates on the backs of the detectors to see when they were made. If there is no date get rid of them.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We actually had that sulphur smell from a lead acid lawn mower battery left charging too long and overheated and was leaking toxic hydrogen sulfide. We caught it in time got the battery outside, opened the windows in the front of the house for airflow (the battery was in the backyard), got our cat and left the house for a while for it to air out.

Very scary situation for us. Had it been too much longer we would have stopped smelling it and it would have been very very very bad. Smoke detectors in our case (which are dual carbon monoxide and smoke) would not have been able to catch that to my knowledge.

I'm curious though with a sulphuric smell what in the fridge motor would be causing that? I'm curious what the smoke detector was picking up on to go off?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Check your smoke detectores and change the batteries 2x a year. Snoke detectors only last 10 years, so if there older toss them and get new ones. The new ones have a built in 10 year battery. Also, have a CO alarm outside tour sleeping area if you have gas or propane appliances. CO alarms only last aboit 7 to 8 years. You can check the dates on the backs of the detectors to see when they were made. If there is no date get rid of them.

Dual smoke detectors have the same 10 year (at least all of ours do) date.

 

[kymom99]

We actually had that sulphur smell from a lead acid lawn mower battery left charging too long and overheated and was leaking toxic hydrogen sulfide. We caught it in time got the battery outside, opened the windows in the front of the house for airflow (the battery was in the backyard), got our cat and left the house for a while for it to air out.

Very scary situation for us. Had it been too much longer we would have stopped smelling it and it would have been very very very bad. Smoke detectors in our case (which are dual carbon monoxide and smoke) would not have been able to catch that to my knowledge.

I'm curious though with a sulphuric smell what in the fridge motor would be causing that? I'm curious what the smoke detector was picking up on to go off?

I’m not sure. I’m also not sure why it would stop going off. The fire chief said it smelled like someone lighting matches only much stronger. I don’t know for a fact that the motor burned up. That’s just their guess. But it definitely came from the fridge.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I’m not sure. I’m also not sure why it would stop going off. The fire chief said it smelled like someone lighting matches only much stronger. I don’t know for a fact that the motor burned up. That’s just their guess. But it definitely came from the fridge.

Hmm that's interesting. Our smell was straight up rotten eggs smell so vastly different than lighting a match smell. That lighting a match smell from what I could find is sulfur (sulphur) dioxide. Upon searching if it was indeed sulfur dioxide another possible thoery is fridges of the past used sulfur dioxide as a refridgerant. I don't know if that is something you'd be likely to find nowadays at all but you may consider checking to see if you can find if your old fridge used that as a refridgerant.

 

[kymom99]

Hmm that's interesting. Our smell was straight up rotten eggs smell so vastly different than lighting a match smell. That lighting a match smell from what I could find is sulfur (sulphur) dioxide. Upon searching if it was indeed sulfur dioxide another possible thoery is fridges of the past used sulfur dioxide as a refridgerant. I don't know if that is something you'd be likely to find nowadays at all but you may consider checking to see if you can find if your old fridge used that as a refridgerant.

That could very well be it. Maybe it was leaking a little and burning on the motor?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

That could very well be it. Maybe it was leaking a little and burning on the motor?

I honestly don't know on that, was just thinking of another possible reason for the smell from a fridge. It's a scary situation no matter what that's for sure!

 

[tvguy]

We helped a friend's mom start moving last weekend. She has lived in this mobile home on 5 acres for 40 years. They have always heated with a wood stove....which was always a little frightening to me in a mobile home. And she used electric space heaters to warm the house as need be. We moved one that hadn't been moved in a long time, and there was a burn mark on the carpet under it!

 

[NYCgrrl]

Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are required by code in my city. The minute the Kidde lithium battery version came out we ditched the double AA and transistor battery styles we had and bought the new style as the battery lasts much longer. I still check the batteries once a month out of force of habit; picked the first day of the month thus making it hard to forget.

Never had a motor burn out on a fridge so I bet that was scary. if you vacuum or dust the coils behind the fridge regularly there is less chance of them overheating. About once every 3 months is good. All of which reminds me I need to remove the baseboard near the fridge as it's preventing me from moving the appliance; never a dull moment.

 

[kymom99]

Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are required by code in my city. The minute the Kidde lithium battery version came out we ditched the double AA and transistor battery styles we had and bought the new style as the battery lasts much longer. I still check the batteries once a month out of force of habit; picked the first day of the month thus making it hard to forget.

Never had a motor burn out on a fridge so I bet that was scary. if you vacuum or dust the coils behind the fridge regularly there is less chance of them overheating. About once every 3 months is good. All of which reminds me I need to remove the baseboard near the fridge as it's preventing me from moving the appliance; never a dull moment.

Yeah one of the firemen came out and said it was the fridge and that there was a lot of dust behind it. He quickly said no worse than any others they have seen. I’m sure he said it so he wouldn’t offend me. That thing is a monster. I would just stick the vacuum behind it as best I could and clean under the front.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Yeah one of the firemen came out and said it was the fridge and that there was a lot of dust behind it. He quickly said no worse than any others they have seen. I’m sure he said it so he wouldn’t offend me. That thing is a monster. I would just stick the vacuum behind it as best I could and clean under the front.

Once I remove the baseboard which is also preventing me from removing the vegetable crisper (just sigh, LOL) I'm going to put furniture sliders under the fridge and stove so moving them becomes easier. You can find the sliders at your local home improvement store. The man is now in his mid '70's and I'm mumble mumble mumble years old so we need to think about the future and how it will be harder to do stuff like this as time goes on.

My mother renovated this apartment when she was in her '80's and did a pretty good job at anticipating what later life would be like but missed a few spots like the kitchen baseboards, the blessed bathtub (her children suggested replacing it with a walk in shower but what did we know?), and the "demndable" carpeting. Once her estate is settled and I buy out my sisters' shares gonna have a further upgrade party and finish what she started.

 

[kymom99]

Once I remove the baseboard which is also preventing me from removing the vegetable crisper (just sigh, LOL) I'm going to put furniture sliders under the fridge and stove so moving them becomes easier. You can find the sliders at your local home improvement store. The man is now in his mid '70's and I'm mumble mumble mumble years old so we need to think about the future and how it will be harder to do stuff like this as time goes on.

My mother renovated this apartment when she was in her '80's and did a pretty good job at anticipating what later life would be like but missed a few spots like the kitchen baseboards, the blessed bathtub (her children suggested replacing it with a walk in shower but what did we know?), and the "demndable" carpeting. Once her estate is settled and I buy out my sisters' shares gonna have a further upgrade party and finish what she started.

I bought this house from my mom’s estate 8 years ago. My dad rigged up everything. Lol. The house was built in the 50s. They did some upgrades but that has been a while. I’m not one who will ever need the newest and best of anything. But the kitchen in here even makes me cringe. I have in my head how I want to fix it up so that it looks more fresh without a total redo. It’s a matter of getting it done. I also want to freshen up the bathroom but there is only one so that will be inconvenient to do.

After this little fiasco we are planning to buy a standard fridge for about $600 which will fit neatly into the space for now. Once we get going on remodeling we can buy a newer one and move this new one to the basement. I just realized the one down there is 30 years old.